It was Lucy, the barred Plymouth Rock hen crippled by a neurological disease, that changed Lauren Scheuer's life.

Ms. Scheuer, a professional illustrator for more than 20 years, adopted Lucy and three other chicks — which she said she selected to be colorful lawn ornaments — as her own pre-emptive empty-nest syndrome when her daughter, now 16, became a teenager.

The girls, as she calls her flock, soon captivated her family and propelled Ms. Scheuer three years ago to start writing a blog, “Scratch and Peck” (Scratchandpeck.blogspot.com).

Catching the wave of interest in raising chickens, the blog led to a book deal and the release today – coincidentally National Poultry Day — of her first book, “Once Upon a Flock: Life with My Soulful Chickens” (Atria Books).

Ms. Scheuer said: “Lucy's the reason I wrote the book. Because of her special needs, because her feet don't work well, she needed me. We bonded.”

The 241-page book chronicles the adventures of the quirky flock, with humor, heartbreak and more than 400 whimsical illustrations and photos.

In addition to Lucy, there's Hatsy, a Rhode Island red who's queen of the roost; Lil' White, an aloof buff Orpington (“Well, I just wanted a reason to say, 'Buff Orpington,' every day,” she writes); Pigeon, the fixer-upper chicken; and an occasional rooster inadvertently mixed in.

Marky, the guard terrier, keeps watch over the flock while stifling his own instinct to eat them.

Publishers Weekly has named “Once Upon a Flock” one of the top 10 most anticipated memoirs of 2013 and the book has already received national attention.

“I lucked out on the book, but even my agent didn't see this coming,” Ms. Scheuer said about its apparent popularity.

Sitting at her laptop at her granite counter, in a remodeled kitchen paid for with the book advance, Ms. Scheuer scanned sheets of paper taped to the wall listing her schedule for radio interviews, book signings and events like the Austin (Tex.) Funky Chicken Coop Tour on Easter weekend, a mecca for backyard chicken enthusiasts.

On March 20, for instance, Ms. Scheuer will tape a radio interview in Boston for National Public Radio's “Animal House” hosted by WAMU in Washington, D.C.

Local readers can find her on April 6 at a reading and book signing at A Little Common Sense, 8 North Main St., Upton.

A sticky note prominently affixed to the wall highlights Ms. Scheuer's favorite writing quotation: “The end of the chapter is the 'Oh, sh@$!' moment.”

“My dad says it all the time,” she said.

Her father, Thomas B. Sawyer (changed from Scheuer) is a novelist, writing teacher and longtime television scriptwriter and executive producer, with credits including “Murder, She Wrote,” “Wonder Woman” and “Quincy, M.E.”

Mr. Sawyer, who also started out as an illustrator, lives in Los Angeles.

While keeping what Ms. Scheuer described as a comfortable distance, “Every time he read one of my blog posts he would call me up with enthusiasm and support.”

She said: “We had wonderful conversations about conflict and cliffhangers. So I learned to leave people hanging so they'd read the next chapter or installment. That was wicked fun.”

While Ms. Scheuer has illustrated a dozen or so children's books, primarily in the American Girl series, and continues to illustrate the American Girl Magazine contest page, she said she's always wanted to write, too.

“I never had a story before,” she said. “I have a drawer full of children's book stories that were never (fully) written because I didn't feel passionately about them.”

With Lucy and her chicken friends, she said, “I had a story that had to be written. That's when I started a blog.”

For Ms. Scheuer, the “Scratch and Peck” blog, which she still writes, was a developmental stage of the book.

She described her approach: “I'm teaching myself to write. I want to write to adults. I want to write well enough to show how absolutely amazing these creatures are.”

Readers' responses to the blog guided Ms. Scheuer's sense of what worked and what didn't. She called the thousands of people who follow her blog or who visit the many backyard chicken Internet forums she posts on, “My best friends I've never met.”

“I begged people to read my blog and collected my first followers that way,” Ms. Scheuer said. “It spread by word of mouth. Then I discovered the wonders of Facebook and the chicken-loving Facebook pages — people who got excited about what I was talking about.”

And the blog served as a marketing tool to convince a publisher she had a story.

“I'm a 24-7 marketer now, which is what you have to do when a book comes out. … My father always calls it 'blatant self-promotion.' ”

Her days are filled with Tweeting, Facebook posts, networking with national backyard chicken groups such as the Austin coop tour, for which she designed the T-shirt logo, and speaking to everyone from women's groups to library audiences to journalists.

Ms. Scheuer said her agent, Laurie Abkemeier of DeFiore and Co., assures her that by July all the hubbub will die down.

“I can't wait to have time to think,” she said. “That's when I'll pick up my pencil — or mouse —again.”

She may also pick up her power tools again and build a new chicken coop for her flock, replacing the current elaborate structure worn down a bit by the winter with a new design she's created.

For now, Ms. Scheuer is living a dream come true.

“I draw and I write about things I love,” she said. “It can't get better than that.”

Contact Susan Spencer at susan.spencer@telegram.com. Follow her on Twitter @SusanSpencerTG.

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